Speaking at a press conference in Matera, Italy in May 2019, Roberto Fiore – the National Secretary of the ultranationalist neo-fascist political party, Forza Nuova (New Force, FN), and President of the international far-right political coalition, the Alliance for Peace and Freedom (APF) – unveiled the slogan for his campaign for the European parliamentary elections at the end of that month. "Spezza le catene di Bruxelles" (Break the Chains of Brussels) epitomizes the far-right's judgment of the European Union (EU) as overly restrictive and systemically corrupt – a view adopted and promoted by right-wing leaders across Europe, including the President of the UK Independence Party (or UKIP), Nigel Farage, during the United Kingdom's "Brexit" campaign in 2016 (Asthana 2016).
This poster combines the FN logo and that of APF, which was founded in 2015 by former members of the dissolved European National Front. The image also includes the raised, chained arms of an anonymous Italian worker, along with the tricolor Italian flag, suggesting that the EU is a threat to the country's laboring classes and, by extension, to all of Europe's workers. Its message is similar to the one conveyed in the Lega (League) poster featured in this collection.
APF frequently lends its support to ultranationalist organizations and parties throughout Europe, including Greece's Golden Dawn and Sweden's Alternative for Sweden. In 2018, the APF helped establish the dissolved Italia agli Italiani (Italy for the Italians), which involved FN and Movimento Sociale Fiamma Tricolore (Social Movement Tricolour Flame). In addition to APF, other Italian neo-fascist groups, including CasaPound Italia (House of [Ezra] Pound Italy, CPI), have opted to participate in EU-wide coalitions with other far-right parties. In the lead-up to the 2019 EU parliamentary elections, for instance, CPI joined the Alliance of European National Movements under the banner of the Italian far-right party Destre Unite (United Right), which is highlighted in one of the CPI materials featured in this collection.
FN won just 0.15% of the votes in the 2019 EU parliamentary elections, failing to achieve the 4% threshold required to gain a seat in the European Parliament's legislative assembly. Although CPI also failed to meet this same threshold, earning just 0.33% of the vote, Matteo Salvini's League secured the largest proportion of votes, winning 34% and 28 seats, following a vitriolic and openly xenophobic campaign which stoked anti-immigrant sentiments in Italy.
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